16 Nov 2018

The networking session was part of the DSTA-DGA Defence SME Seminar on 12 to 13 November 2018, co-organised with the French defence procurement and technology agency, Direction générale de l’armement (DGA). Held in the framework of the 2018 France-Singapore Year of Innovation, it was an opportune time for over 100 participants from the DTC, technology enterprises and industry associations from both countries to gather and explore collaboration opportunities in the defence arena.

Opening the session, Chief Executive Tan Peng Yam outlined the challenges faced in today’s changing defence and security landscape. As such, he emphasised the need to keep abreast of developments and innovations in commercial technology and to ensure such capabilities are harnessed for the SAF.

Ambassador of France to Singapore H.E. Marc Abensour elaborated on the efforts between Singapore and France to strengthen innovation and collaboration, adding that the seminar would serve as a useful platform for both parties to gain further insights into one another’s expertise in defence technology.

Next, DGA Director of Asia Pacific BG Cyril Crozes highlighted the ongoing partnership between DGA and the local defence ecosystem, and the programmes DGA has put in place to boost defence capability development.

Representatives from the French Defence Industries Associations also spoke about their efforts to drive industrial cooperation and technology transfers in the maritime, aerospace and land industries to maintain France’s technological edge.

At the session, Director (Plans and Collaboration) Eugene Chang from the Defence Technology Collaboration Office shared Singapore’s defence ecosystem and how the DTC is organised to deliver coherent capabilities to the SAF. Director (Procurement Operations) Helen Tai also spoke about DSTA’s collaboration efforts with SMEs. In particular, she cited DSTA@71, an open collaboration lab, as a platform that enables DSTA and the rest of the DTC to be plugged into technology start-up clusters to accelerate developments in areas such as artificial intelligence, data science and robotics.

Participants took the opportunity to network and engage one another in business meetings to discuss innovative defence capabilities, share perspectives and identify future areas for collaboration.